Sunday, 3 May 2015

I can't decide whether to have this AND my MA blog running or combine the two, what does anyone think?For now I'm copying and pasting the post I've just written about my Chernobyl trip from my MA blog!

Hotel in Pripyat Plaza

Some
said 'brave', some couldn't understand why we would even wish to go
there, some were envious…we (me, my partner, my 2 x 21 year old
daughters and one boyfriend - I was very impressed they all desperately wanted to come) were excited and really had no idea what to expect.

Personally
and ostensibly it was for my MA research (though no excuse needed) and I
was looking forward to meeting the re-settlers and to discover their
reasons for choosing to go back and live on the edge of the exclusion
zone which is still a very dangerous place to live due to the invisible
enemy 'radiation poisoning'. It has been said that the longevity of the
re-settlers lives is due to their quality of life and happiness in
being 'home' which negates the effects of the radiation. The dangers of
which is more preferable to them than living in a city's high-rise away
from their farms and the countryside.

Ivan (Mikhail) Ivanovitch, Security (!) and Ivan's house

Me and a happy Ivan

However,
after my visit, I realised there were so many other aspects regarding
the 'Chernobyl issue' that I couldn't confine my interest to just the
re-settlers and I have reverted to my original thoughts about dark
tourism, collective trauma and collective memory, then overarching or
underpinning this, the 'correctness' of interpreting such unspeakable,
atrocities and heinous issues via an aesthetic means. (N.B. I may be visiting Auschwitz later this year).

The
trip itself was mesmerising (for want of a better word) from start to
finish. There were days either side spent in Kiev and an airbnb
apartment which were fantastic, although kind of 70's, and unbelievably
cheap.

Back to the 2 days spent in Chernobyl. Radiation dose expected equivalent = one hospital x-ray.

We were with Chernobylwel.com
(fantastic!) - a tour, only/easiest way to get in, and of a very mixed
group, 17 persons and a guide. There were other families and some
couples, some groups of friends and a few people travelling alone which
was a very nice mix. People from USA, Finland, Germany, Austria, Spain,
Sweden, UK and Switzerland at least, which I loved and people of all
ages 18 -70.

On the minibus on the way to the power plant + Laura

We
weren't quite sure exactly where we were going and in what order but
this was where we went, in order (I think!) This was after we checked in
at the hotel, in CHERNOBYL, within the 30km exclusion zone,
which extends on the north side into Belarus, Russia. We have stayed in
much worse Travelodges in the UK. The food was, shall we say,
interesting - plain and typical Ukrainian food, and the blob of tomato
sauce on the side of plain pasta or rice we found quite amusing. Every
meal was a set menu (all inclusive :-) and we were all served at the
same time, it reminded me of school trips abroad years ago.

Itinerary: DAY 1:

Abandoned house in Chernobyl town

Chernobyl Town: The Angel of Death monument/memorial

Rusting boats - docks (quickly & from a distance)

Robots (used in the clean up operation)

(small) Kindergarten

Cooling towers of unfinished reactor 5 & 6, due for opening in 1988 for Reactors 5 and 6

Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Reactor number 4 - viewing platform and VERY close

Fireman memorial

Bridge & giant catfish

Reactor number 4 & Memorial

New sarcophagus ('safe' distance)

Pripyat ''Ghost City'': (inhabitants were given two hours notice to evacuate, almost two days after the explosion - already too late)

Cafe

Prometheus cinema

Local Council Admin Building

Pripyat Plaza-

Polesie Hotel

Palace of Culture: "Energetik"

Amusement park

Soccer stadium - Stadium Avangard

Middle/Grammar school

Swimming pool (in use by the liquidators and other people working in the Zone up until 1996)

Tower block (roof of)

We got back to the hotel sometime before 8pm (there's a curfew), had dinner and sampled the bar.Oh, there are no toilets in Chernobyl/Pripyat that you can actually use,
only bushes (!) so be prepared to wait up to 6 hours if you're like me,
then also be prepared for the most awful toilet ever which is located
at the checkpoint... not sure it was better than a bush to be honest.

Radiation detectors going in and out of the exclusion zone

DAY 2:

Chernobyl Zoo (I would say small farm or pets corner)

Bridge
of Death; where people flocked to watch the flames of the explosion and
consequently received lethal doses of radiation. I think if it had
happened at Hartlepool, the people of Billingham would have probably
done the same. Also, there were people travelling on a train going under
the bridge on their way to Moscow at the time of the explosion who also
received very high dosage of radiation, an extreme case of wrong place,
wrong time.

Pripyat: Hospital, one of my favourite places, very emotional and evocative.

Combined
School (collapsed in April 2013- the snow that falls in the winter has
caused most of the damage to the city, I think soon it will all possibly
be too destructed to visit)

Greenhouse

Telephone exchange?

Jupiter Factory (could have stayed here all day)

Police station and cells with exercise yard

Old Fire Station (with garage), all the men who worked here died.

Kindergarten 2 ( a bigger one)

Open air military museum (possibly, it was somewhere with trucks)

Meeting
local inhabitants in the Resettlement zone (unbelievable and great for
my research) I have recorded an interview but can't get it off my phone
as yet.

Late
lunch at power station (an experience, I wouldn't like to eat there
every day - rumour has it it's always exactly the same) - there are
still workers building the new (overdue) sarcophagus which will protect
the world from the radiation that is still being emitted and possibly
escaping as we speak through the holes in the old one.

Vehicle graveyard - Chernobyl (possibly through the red forest - I wasn't even sure where we were at the time)

The
whole experience was like NOTHING I have ever experienced before. The
pictures you see on the internet give NO indication of the feeling you
get by being there. It is truly amazing, I have never seen
anything/anywhere like it in my life… it is the most unbelievable,
disconcerting, silent, strangely beautiful place I believe I will ever
see.

I
still haven't managed to work my way through all my photographs so
these are just a very small selection of the first lot- it is SO difficult to give a good indication of the whole trip. I will publish a couple of albums on my Facebook page as soon as possible.